As Slyde Handboards continues to expand as a brand, Steve, Ang, I, and countless others with in the community, realized we've also grown as people because of Slyde.

The tagline "epic wave riding in the palm of your hand" has and will continue to describe Slyde as a product, but it doesn't embrace the FUN lifestyle full of connections, travel and stoke, that Slyde brings.

Fasten your seatbelts and welcome to the SlydeLife.  A place where doing what you love, seeking adventure over routine, and following your path, is always the answer.  It's here the lines between passion, adventure and persistence collide.

Since I'm fully living the SlydeLife, I wanted to share my personal journey of following my path to Slyde Handboards.

Follow Your Path: Upstate New York To Southern California Edition

My Follow Your Path story begins in a Upstate New York, Binghamton to be exact.  A "smallish" town where I go by the name of Shelley, and my family to this day all live with in a 10mile radius of each other.

My greatest passions in life growing up were skateboarding, tennis, surf culture, hip-hop, writing, and the beach. Annual summer vacations to Ocean City Maryland, and The Jersey Shore gave me a taste of skateboard parks, saltwater waves, and left the smell of surf wax permanently engrained in my mind.

I wanted everyday of my life to feel like summer vacation, and skateboarding gave me that everyday escape, becoming my first love.  The art & bold neon colors, the mysterious underground appeal, and the fact that I could grind a rail without even leaving my front porch.

At age 10 my cousin Heather had 1 mission in life... to buy Fat Cat Skates, a small local skateboard shop that was up for sale.  We asked for an increase in our allowances offering to help more around the house. Plus for an entire summer (realistically probably 2 weeks) we offered our babysitting services, lawn care, made crafts out of pipe cleaners, and harvested vegetables to sell door to door from a wheel barrow. 

I remember selling a few crafts, and a bundle of rhubarb to a friendly neighbor, but I'm pretty sure my grandma Michalak was the only one that actually hired us. And although she paid well, we were a still short on cash, and our dreams of buying Fat Cat Skateboards were deflated.

The extra change in our pockets, did get us few extra stickers for our boards that summer, and a huge Gotcha poster for my wall. More importantly it continues to remind me to never loose sight of what moves you.

There were many times like Adele I've thought "should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavement, even if it leads nowhere." Yet amongst all the twists, turns, adventures, losses, celebrations, and unknowns along the way,  that feeling of wanting to be a part of the surf/skate culture always stayed with me.   

I continued to carry on and follow my path, which in 2012 led me to connect with Steve of Slyde Handboards. I was flipping thru a local San Diego magazine and saw an ad for The Wedge board. I was fairly well versed in online marketing at that stage of my career, and sent him both an email and a handwritten letter,  offering up my services for free for 1 month in exchange for a board.  

You see Slyde Handboards brought up that old thrill and memory of Fat Cat Skates from all those years ago, and this time I wasn't going to loose sight of it.

6 years later and here we are.  I can honestly say never once have I had to force myself to go to work or dreaded being here, which is rare. Has it always been easy, definitely not. Has it been worth it yes.  

I'm so incredibly proud of how strong of a community we've become the limitless possibilities the future holds for Slyde Handboards. 

Thank YOU all for being an epic part of my journey.   

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